The OUTSKIRT Team

Hirsohi's jaws click together frustratingly as the Ground/Dragon type drags itself tree of his bite and, with tattered wing still aflame, digs two clawed black feet into the soft loose sands. That slippery bastard was trying to dig its way out of it!
His eyes fix firm on the moving patch of dirt as he leaps forwards, shoving his long and clawed arms down the steadily growing tunnel in the sand after the burrowing Vibrava.
For a moment he manages to grip the end of the creature's twitching tail as it digs and he struggles to get a firm grip on it to drag it from the escape route the undead is digging but he merely manages to snag one of the purple blotched tail flanges before it is beyond his reach. In frustration the Charmeleon throws down the bloodied remnant of scale and calls out a warning.
"Be careful your Majesty, we don't know which one of us it is targeting!"
The Fire Type calls out, suddenly wary of the dirt beneath his feet.

Almost curiously the Dewott tilts his head to one side, listening to the faint noise of claw on scrabbling sand that is barely audible above the mournful cry of the desert winds. His paddle-like tail slams the sand dune in a sign of warning, raising a puff of dry desert dust and the sound gets louder.
Hiroshi... The Water Tye signs nervously but the Flame Pokemon is facing towards the Kabutops and cannot see then Dewott hand signals. Hiroshi its coming. Hideki signs more urgently as the sands in front of him split open as the digging Vibrava fixes its jaws around the Dewott's right arm, digging in its sharp fangs dripping with infected saliva.
With a grating screech its jaws hit cold lifeless metal and pop the artificial limb loose from its socket.
Wrong arm. the Dewott can't help but sign as he takes the blow calmly with no sign of the discomfort the unnatural position of his prosthetic is giving him and strikes back with the Scalchop clutched tight in his other paw in an act of pure Revenge.
The bladed shell lacerates the Vibrava's throat, cutting a deep gash all the way to the creature’s spine and causing a dark congealed red blood to slowly start to ooze from the gash.

Regale gasps in surprise, the squalling thing with flaming jaws fixed around one wing was bloodied, hideous with large splotches of purple discoloring its cream colored skin.
The pestilent thing had blood dripping from its jaws, caked with the desert sands and made a loud unpleasant noise that grated on his eardrums like the keel of a boat being dragged across a coral reef. A burst of apprehension blooms in him as he sees the land dweller creature tear itself away from Flame Pokemon's jaws and dig into the soft sand.
He nearly sighs with relief when the Charmelon plunges his clawed fingers in after it but it fades away nearly instantly when Hiroshi stands with nothing more than a fragment of green and purple scale clutched in his claws.
At the Flame pokemon's warning Regale actually squeals outloud and starts an odd kind of hopping dance, trying to keep contact with the sandy ground as brief as possible. His mind fills with the thought of the bloodied unnatural thing leaping from the sands undeneath him and...
He almost breathes a sigh of relief when it surfaces under his other mecenary instead, its jaws fizing on the hard and lifeless metal limb and the shell lacerates its skin. Surely it was close to dying!
Still hopping Regale gives another order.
"Finish it off wwith Flare Blitz and Razor Shell!"

The Vibrava seems to tilt its head almost curiously as it releases the tasteless metal limb. It whirring wings fill the air with an irritating sort of whining and keep it hovering just above the surface of the sand. Its head feelers twitch as it smiles and takes a step forwards. Hiroshi can't help but respond in the same way.
With a lightning fast suddenness the Vibrava strikes, slamming its rotting body hard into the Flame Pokemon's in a powerful Faint Attack that send the Fire Type sprawling backwards. The Charmeleon winces at the pain and feels the shallow gashes the ground dragon's sharp clawed feet have left in his soft scaled cream underbelly. A few drops of blood drip into the sand.
The Charmeleon immediately drops into an aggressive crouch, panting orange flames in anger as he ignites his scales in the blazing burn of Flare Blitz. Flames lick over his entire body, enhaloing him in light and heat haze. They burn with such an intense heat it even manages to scorch away part of his upper layer of flame-resistant scales, exposing the softer and more delicate layers below. It is this tiny pain that puts the Flame Pokemon over the edge into anger. His tail flame ignites into a solid blaze of blue white heat. His slit pupils are hair fine against the solid orange of his eyes. With a soft whump sound the flames that cover him too become the bright blue-white of intense heat and grow all the larger as the Flame Pokemon's Blaze ability is activated. The Charmeleon's form wavers with heat haze.
His long claws dig into the cherry-red glowing sand at his feet as Hiroshi roars a deep throated guttural roar like the eruption of a geyser and charges straight towards the Vibrava, a comet's tail of blue blazing behind him.

Wincing as he wrenches his metal limb back into its socket the Dewott clicks his arm back into place and picks up his scalchop from where the dislocation has caused it to fall into the desert sands. A sudden shiver of a sensation passes over him like a bucket of ice cold water had just been dumped on his fur as his Torrent ability activates. It seems to leave a small shimmer of icy blue light flickering across his fur.
He hears Hiroshi's roar of anger and knows that his God of Flames has been forced into a similar state. It is easy now to keep track of the Charmeleon's position, the dry heat that surrounds him frazzles the Water-Type's whiskers as he passes the Charmeleon by. An equal glow of blue begins to surround the cutting edge of his scalchops as he prepares them for the lacerating Razor Shell cut and charges in.
He cannot let his god rush in alone.
The glow of Torrent flickers over his form, seemingly giving him a double-outline of motion blur as he charges forwards, overtaking the dry heat blaze of the Charmeleon to rip his scalchop into the Vibrava's stomach. The edge of the fan-like shell sinks deep into the ground type's stomach and, meeting a brief resistance from something hard inside its gut, tear straight through and spill a stinking mush of semi-digested food onto the sands.
Hideki leaps back as the blaze of cutting flame that is the Charmeleon charges in to engulf the vibrava in flame.
The cut in half Everstone falls from the undead's stomach onto the sand.

Regale is the only one that notices the small lump of white stone amongst the black-brown semi-digested mush and his metallic golden eyes widen as he recognizes it.
The white sea smooth rock he had heard of before and he knew too of its incredible properties. It radiated a strange kind of energy equal and opposite to that a pokemon needed to evolve. No matter how powerful you were, no matter how hard you trained, if you held one or were close to one no matter how hard you trained and no matter how strong you got you couldn't begin to evolve until you were separated from it...like this land beast now was.
He knows what is going to happen before it even starts and it makes his purple blood boil in his veins to know he has no way of preventing it.
In a swirling of sand he watches the Charmeleon's blazing blow connect, both pokemon momentarily becoming mere silhouettes in the cutting white-blue blaze of fire before, broken, bloodied but not yet beaten the Vibrava falls back in the sands, flaps its tattered wings and begins to glow.

Hiroshi extinguishes the cloak of fire after the blow has connected and slides back panting. His orange-red skin is still aglow with the heat haze of Blaze and it makes the air waver faintly around him. His eyes are still a near solid blaze of orange as he slides away from the ground/dragon and tries to catch his breath as he plans his next attack as the bedraggled insect-like undead fixes its bright red eyes on him with a malevolent glare and takes a shaky step forwards, the stinking mush of its slit open intestines spilling out behind it. Its noisy wings whirr as a bright glowm starts to enhalo its form, its hind legs starting to lengthen as its forelegs shorten.
His eyes widening in surprise as he realizes what is happening the Charmeleon draws back his head and snorts out a thick cloud of jet-black smoke that billows around the sand-dunes to hide them from sight as far larger wings unfold. He swears under his breath and blinnking milky white second eyelids in the smog he tries to seek out Hideki.
The burning hot aura of blaze still lurks under his skin and makes him itch for battle but if their powerful combination attack hadn't taken it down as a Vibrava and they had already been forced into activating their abilities one more hit could mean the end of the battle for them both.
Through the smog he can see the vague shadowy shape of the Flygon as it whirrs its wings and takes flight.
The Flame Pokemon hopes his Smokescreen prevents its red eyes from seeing them.

Hideki examines the mush of the Illusion's spilled stomach contents. He had felt his scalchop hit something hard in the creature's gut. With care he drags the edge of his scalchops through the mush of half digested flesh and sinew until he feels the shell's edge clink on something hard. Using the shell's edge he drags the object from the mush and cleans it off with the edge of his scalchop before picking it up.
A regular Dewott would have been disgusted by the thought of using their scalchops for something so unsanitary but Hideki couldn't care less as he picks up the hard rock lump.
The digestive juices have polished the stone to a smooth finish. The Water Type holds both halves in each paw then experimentally fits them back together. The cut that runs through the center of it has divided it cleanly it two and both parts fit back together with barely a hairline crack between them. Hideki looks at it closely and his long white whiskers twitch. It must be a Luck Omen.
It is the acrid smell of smoke in the air that alerts him to the battle not being over yet.
The familiar warmth of Hiroshi's skin does not take much finding, in his blaze state his skin glows with a new heat.
Hideki rests his metal hand on the Charmeleon's shoulder, a few chips of paint beginning to peel off and reveal the bare metal underneath. He investigates the scratches the Vibrava had left in the Charmeleon's scaled stomach and signs a question.
Are you ok.?
"Thing damn evolved on us." The Flame Pokemon replies aloud, the bitterness evident in his tone.
Not only was the battle hotting up but he had been trying to evolve for such a long time to see his opponent do it before him was plain irritating. "I'll try to get it to land with Rock Slide, you take its head off."

The Kabutops stands as still as he can and tries to look an unappetizing as possible. Only the edges of the smoke conceal him from view and the Smokescreen is thinner around him than around his mercenaries. He can clearly see the massive purple and green dragon take flight from the smoke as it grows and changes, its four wings becoming two. It is still missing one of the flanges from its tail and has trouble getting airborne as its shifting form sets in the shape of a mighty dragon.
King Regale's breath catches in his throat.
What a terrifying thing!
The massive dragon flapping above the cloud of jet smoke is massive, the great slashes in its throat and stomach leaking a congealed dark red blood. One wing still bears bite marks from his mercenary and it brings with it the stink of rot and decay. The edge of its intestines is still dangling out of its slit open stomach.
Twisting its long head around it's bloodied red eyes search the thick cloud of rolling smoke in search of the one's who have injured it.
The Shellfish Pokemon tries not to draw attention to himself.
What a dragon to slay to gain command of his kingdom!
From the creature's jaws comes a low mournful howling, a curiously musicial sound that echoes around the desert as it flaps its wings furiously to try and clear the smoke.

The smoke billowing around his ankles the Charmeleon digs his long claws deep into the sad where the tunnel dug by their opponent back when it was still a vibrava lies. He feels the soft sand collapse under his claws as he digs them deep into the sand and finds a corner of stone to grab hold of. Perhaps the chunk of ancient stone Hiroshi laboriously drags from the loose sands was part of some ancient ruins or perhaps the faint grooves that trace across the rock are simply natural patterns. Wincing at the strain Hiroshi takes a firmer grip on the stone and lifts it over his head.
Straight and true the hurled boulder follows a straight trajectory from beneath the hovering red-eyed Flygon and smashes across its broad back into a shower of smaller lumps of stone.
Hiroshi pumps the air with his fist in victory and the Flygon's distressed cry and kneels, keeping his tail low.
For a brief moment he feels the whole weight of Hideki's body rest on back as the uses his back as a springboard to Water Type launch himself into the air.
The first chunk of fallen stone thuds into the sand beside him as he grabs another chunk of stone and hurls it after the first.

Hideki nods assent to the plan and, as soon as Hiroshi starts to sift through the sand he presses half of the split stone into the Flame Pokemon's scaled hand.
Take it with you. It's a Luck Omen. the Discipline Pokemon signs and doesn't see the way the Charmeleon rolls his eyes sarcastically in response as he takes the offered gift.
"Get ready to jump." Hiroshi grunts as he tries to lift the massive lump of stone he has managed to locate underneath the sands.
Hideki is already getting his run up as the boulder flies and smashes across the rot-smelling Illusion.
He leaps, planting his feet on Hiroshi's scaled back and pushing off. The swirling smoke parts around him as the Water Type uses the extra height to get as airborne as possible. Many chunks of stone have hit the creature's wings and sent it spiraling down. The Dewott's trajectory sends him towards the creature's long neck.
Scalchop already glowing with the sharp edge of Razor Shell Hideki plunges both shell blades into the dragon's neck and feels them grate on the bones of the dragon's vertebrae as he tries to slice through the creature's neck.
He just misses, managing to gouge a deep gash across the creature's neck and holding on tight to the dragon's green scaled chest as it flutters its wings to try and stay airborne.

King Regale gasps as he sees the massive chunk of stone part the cloud of smoke in a soaring trajectory that sends it smashing straight into the dragon. As it hits the dragon's back it fractures into many smaller chunks of stone than rain down on the large wings and force it down towards the cloud of smoke.
One of his mercenaries with fur glowing blue darts up from the cloud of smoke to tear another nearly fatal gash in the great mutilated thing's side and it gives a discordant screech, in anger or pain he can no longer tell. Despite the massive gashes torn in it's body the land dweller beast does not seem to be tiring.
Even as a few drips of dark congealed blood flow from the massive wound its long neck twists around as it tries to snap at the blue furred mercenary resolutely clinging to its scaled hide. Its already bite-marked wing has crumpled under the weight of the falling stone. What exactly was this thing to take so long to die, even with such a deep gash carved in its throat?
Surely his mercenaries cannot restrain the thing for much longer. It shakes its leg and the Kabutops can see the blue furred shape of his mercenary slip. Another lump of stone rises from the smoke to try and force the thing further down, the mutilated dragon hissing its anger though the stones seem to irritate more than harm it.
Why aren't they just finishing it off already? The Shellfish pokemon muses and the answer comes to him in a flash of ego.
They were so well trained they knew that the best way for this battle to end was for their king to strike the final blow. Not only would it show how capable he was as a commander but also his personal might. By slaying this threat to his domain he establishes his dominion once and for all.

The Kabutops steps from the smoke and makes sure the light of the setting sun gleams impressively off the edges of his scythe.
"Foul beast who pollutes the shores of my wwaves." The Kabutops calls impressively and the Undead turns its long neck towards him, red eyes focusing on the insignificant speck of brown that dares challenge him. "I wwill not permit you to pass. Feel the wwrath of my wwhite science!"
Regale draws in the power he can feel coursing inside his veins from his noble blood and focuses it into a single beam that bursts from his mouth in a blaze of pure white energy.
It sears the retinas of anyone that looks directly at it and lights up the desert like a beacon.
For a moment as it strikes the mutilated dragon's long neck in appears to pause before striking through as straight as an arrow to spear a dark patch of sky on the horizon.
In a second the intense heat of the beam of pure power turns the bones and flesh of the rotting Flygon into little more than a smear of ash on the horizon.
King Regale cuts of his Hyper Beam attack as the bloody beast begins to fall, its severed head some distance from its body landing heavily in the sands. What remains of the thick Smoke is scattered as it's still pointlessly twitching body lands heavily in the sand dunes and whips up a shock wave of wind around it.

Apprehensively peering through the smog the Charmeleon is almost too late in diving out of the way as the large dragon tumbles from the sky along with large chunks of shattered boulder that remain from the attack.
What was merely a slightly darker patch of shadow through the dark smoke swiftly becomes a huge scaly mess of twitching dragon corpse as the decapitated undead twitches its large wings on muscle memory and adrenaline alone in some mockery of an attempt at flight. Owing his survival solely due to his enhanced reflexes in his Blaze state the Flame Pokemon dives to one side just as the twitching claws gouge the sand where he had been standing.
On a separate course, sent outwards by the force of the Hyper Beam attack, the severed head falls from the air and bounces off a sand dune, slowly rolling to a halt.
Slowly the cloud of smoke begins to clear and the Fire Type tentatively looks up to see the arch of a long insectile wing over his head.
It's last few spasmodic twitches seem to cease and the Charmeleon grins widely and punches the air again in his usual sign of victory. Somehow Hideki must have done it!
Creeping from beneath the large wing still marked with the signs of his earlier Fire Fang attack Hiroshi prepare to go and congratulate the Dewott.
One last spasm of movement from the re-killed beast beside him knocks over one of the large chunks of boulder from the Rock Slide attack and this time the Fire Type doesn't quite dodge in time.
It rolls over onto Hiroshi, sending the Charmeleon sprawling snout-first into the sand and keeping him pinned with its weight.

Hideki, clinging tight to the dragon's scales with one paw and repeatedly stabbing it with the Scalchop held in his mechanical paw, cannot see the beam of light as it passes straight by him to cut through the Flygon's long neck but he can feel the sudden slackness in the creature's body as it starts to fall.
Swiftly he takes the Luck Omen in his mouth and tries to clamber as far up the creature's scaly skin before the inevitable loud thump of impact nearly knocks him loose.
His mechanical arm dislocates from the shoulder again with a sharp sting of pain and the Dewott falls helplessly the last few meters onto the packed sand below with a far softer thump.
The Water Type winces as he picks himself up out of the sand and with a sharp wrenching movement pops the limb back into its socket before spitting the bitter tasting Luck Omen back into his palm.
It was one of the best he'd ever had to grant him such luck.
As he rests his paw against one of the broken lumps of stone the Dewott runs his cold metal fingers over his white whiskers.
Hiroshi? He signs and curiously picks up the Flygon's severed head.
As he starts to walk around the corpse he signs again.
Hiroshi, were are you?

Cheerfully the Shellfish pokemon runs down the sand dunes in his long-legged stalking gait, his clawed feet leaving deep footprints in the sand as he surveys the corpse of the monster he has felled.
What a dragon he has slain!
"Let all here knoww this land is for mine and mine alone from noww until the wwaves devour the land and this place is no more." He declares to the empty desert as regally as he can manage. "I am ruler here."
He plants a foot against the headless body's side and his toe claws sink in with a disgusting sploosh sound.
"[color=#91219E]Any pirating monsters that wwish to ride my wwave wwithout permission wwill be, wwithout mercy, cut down"
Tilting his head impressively so his golden crown catches the last few rays of the setting sun the crowned Kabutops strides over to the Dewott.
"Wwhat a fine trophy." He says as he plucks the severed head from the Water Type's unresisting paw. "Wwe should display it at the borders of my new lands."
From the nearest rock he starts to hack of a sliver of stone using the sharp edges of his gleaming scythes.

Irritably Hiroshi snorts a puff of smoke in agitation. Surely the sight he makes right now is nearly comic; the boulder has trapped most of the left side of his body and leaving only the lower part of his right arm, his head and the very flaming tip of his tail and feet still exposed to the air. He tries to rotate his right shoulder in the hopes of rolling the boulder off him but it just causes a jagged edge of the broken stone to sjab into his scaly skin.
He was stuck.
In a way he was fortunate, if the boulder had rolled a few more inches to the left he would have been squashed entirely by it. On the other hand if it had fallen a bit more the other way he would have been able to wriggle free no problem.
The fire type tries to dig himself out, his clawed feet scrabbling uselessly as he struggles to get them into the sand. The Charmeleon gnashes his jaws in frustration. The powerful aura of Blaze that still surrounds him heats the surrounding sands and the larger rock slowly, the tickling sensation of the faint breeze stirring sand around him almost unbearable on his more vulnerable layer of new scales. The scratch wounds on his creamy underbelly were getting clogged with the dirt.
The Fire Type wriggles once more in a bid for freedom before giving up and exhaling another ring of black smoke.
With nothing else to do but wait to be found the Fire Type decides to see what it was exactly that Hideki had given him for luck.
Mentally promising if its another piece of some cut up dead thing he's going to scream Hiroshi opens his claws...

Hideki turns his head towards the Kabutops and lets it pull the severed head from his paw. The speech Hideki couldn't care less about, the babblings of the Lesser God were nothing more than a cheap amusement to him but the more important thing is that the Dewott can't feel anywhere nearby the warm aura of his God of Flames. Where had he gone to?
Hiroshi was very close when it fell. The Dewott signs as he points to the Illusion's fallen corpse. Its rotting flesh, even as the desert slowly cools, has already attracted a swarm of busy insects that swarm around the ragged burnt flesh of its severed neck to burrow in and lay eggs in tis rotting meat. Soon the desert will claim it and nothing will be left but a pile of sand-smoothed bones.
Can you help me find him? Hideki signs, beckoning with a paw. He has spent so long travelling with a companion that understands him he has taken comprehension of his swift signs for granted and doesn't realize how strange it seems to others.

With a mighty crack the busy blades of the Shellfish Pokemon carve a shape in the stone of a tall pointed lance large enough to rise above the desert sands with a sharp triangular point at the end for impalement. He sinks his scythe blades deeper into the stone until with a mighty crack the stone splits enough for the roughly hewn splinter of stone to be lifted free.
Clumsily manipulating the shaft of rust-coloured stone Regale manages to plant it deeply in the sand so it stands unaided and then grips the severed head between both his scythes.
Inexpertly he tries to impale the head on the spine, worrying it past the small tatter of purple and green skin hanging from the scorched neck until the point of the rock hits the hard skull underneath.
Like it was little more than some kind of hard-skinned fruit the Kabutops raises the head up and slams it down on the stone spear.
The skull cracks and splits enough to let the stone tip sink part way into the creature's rotting brain.
Again the Rock/Water Type picks up and smashes the rotting decapitated head down hard on the spike and this time it sinks fully through, the tip of the spear of stone piercing up through the rotting skull so that the head rests partway down the spike like a macabre lollipop.
Looking over at the Dewott puzzlement crinkles his features at the Water Type's hand movements. As it points to the Flygon Regale finally understands; his smaller mercenary is complementing his trophy.
"Yes, it is a fine sign to anemones that wwe’re not to be messed wwith." He says as he tries to interpret the Water Type's next flurry of motions.
Right, he's got a spot in mind for placing the banner.
"Is that the quickest way to go?" He asks, confident he's being magnanimous to take such efforts in interpreting the signs of his servants. "Wait, wwere's our other frond?"

((Wow that'smy first whole page of just me posting O_O))

A flicker of flame twitches at the corner of his mouth and mustering a small amount of the combustible fuel left in him Hiroshi breathes a small flicker of flame over the object, burning off the faint residue of brown-black mush that clings to its surface to closer examine the chunk of small white stone. Its surface is very smooth and rather pleasant to the touch and it seems to be almost entirely flat at one end where Hideki's Scalchops have severed it clean through the middle. No wonder Hideki had tried to give it to him, two halves that could be made whole just exerted some strange kind of pressure on him.
With the itch of sand in his raw scales and the deep hot aura of Blaze heating the rock around him and causing the sand under him to start to glow cherry red the strange waves of energy that radiate from the stone are barely perceptible.
Hideki strains and set his jaw in determination. Cords of muscle show in his crimson scaled shoulders as the large Charmeleon struggles to lift the boulder from his back. His long clawed talons dig deeply into the sand as he pushes hard against the ground and pits all the strength he can muster against the lump of stone. He can feel it shifting in the sand, the large stone slowly starting to move to the side. He pushes harder and harder and suddenly the stone spins to the side a fraction, smacking him back down in a slightly different position. In irritation he thumps the sand with the extra few inches of exposed tail the effort has gained him.
"Hideki, get your furry ass over here and get this pebble off me!" He snaps in irritation.

In a gesture that the Shellfish Pokemon can't possibly misunderstand Hideki smacks his forehead with one furry paw and takes off around the headless corpse. The charred smell of the last few wisps of blowing away smoke gives way to a more foul rank scent of the rotting carcass.
Dotting the cooling sands is the rough chunks of shattered boulders, his metal fingers tapping on the surface of each one.
At the sound of Hiroshi's irritable cry the Water Type flicks one black-furred ear in response and as silently as ever starts to seek out his God of Flames with an ever greater sense of urgency. The strange shimmering light of Torrent still sparkles in his fur and makes his heart beat faster.
The Illusion had fallen, their entertainment for the day was over and with each minute the temperature falls even further. Not only did the Discipline pokemon wish to rest and recover his health his sky colored fur had ended up matted with sand once again, to his irritation. It was time to return to the metal place for a bit more food and, most importantly, rest.
Turning only to beckon over the blade armed Lesser God Hideki scampers over the sands in search of Hiroshi, hitting the sand with his tail to alert the Charmeleon to his presence.

Regale tuts impatiently at the behaviour of his mercenaries, the strangely disrespectful behaviour of his Water Type mercenary and the crude language of his Fire Type, somehow still out of sight.
From his angry tirade he was trapped under a 'pebble' no doubt one of the many boulders surrounding the felled beast. More delays to placing his banner...
A cold-blooded thing, more insect than anything else, the growing cold as the sun sets to a mere smudge of gold and rose on the indigo coloured sky chills him unpleasantly. In his ocean home it never got too cold, he bitterly thinks, the convection currents kept the water the perfect temperature for prime activity with warmer tropical currents sweeping in during summer.
An icicle of homesickness stabbing at his purple heart the Kabutops keeps a tight if awkward grip on his standard as curiously follows the Water Type through the boulder field. A shimmer of lighter blue seemed to be playing across the metal-armed mercenary’s fur, it outlining his shape in a surprisingly beautiful way against the darkening skies.
Clawed feet planting themselves into the sand the Shellfish Pokemon approaches in a twitching predatory stalk, his scythes gilded by the sunset light, the severed head impaled on its spine of stone still held in his gaunt limbs as he tilts his flat, triangular head to one side and his metallic golden eyes focus on the Discipline pokemon in front of him. Why was his fur that bright colour, was that his ability?
Against the darkening landscape his eyes pick up something that the blind Water Type hasn't be able to detect; the flickering glow of a flame tipped tail under the chunk of dusty stone.
"Found him." The Kabutops announces triumphantly, sand crunching underfoot as he strides towards the trapped Fire Type.

Under his breath Hiroshi swears at the sound of the Kabutops's approach. Sure the Water Type was eager but his body was skinny, gaunt and all armor-plating with no muscle underneath. He could never be able to lift the boulder off him and the gleaming scythes weren't anything Hiroshi wanted near him. One wrong slice and he'd end up a tailless freak.
His clawed hand is still clutched around the half stone; he isn't really thinking about it and nothing has given his body a reason to get go.
"Your majesty, can you get Hideki to come and help me up? We should really be returning to your castle for the night. We need rest and we could celebrate your victory." He says, his voice suddenly becoming a lot more persuasive with a tone of wheel-and-deal. The strange human vehicle-eating place was still King Regale's 'sandcastle' and it was a defensible enough base to spend the night.
While the desert was scorching hot in the day Hiroshi knew enough about deserts to know it would soon drop to freezing point when night fell.
He blows another plume of smoke and gets ready to push the stone aside once it has been sliced into more manageable chunks.

Though Hideki cannot see the telltale flame the cheerful announcement of the Lesser God is hard to miss. He scampers after the Shellfish pokemon, two of his shorter skipping paces equal to one of the Kabutops's long-legged strides, as he follows the Lesser God's paces towards the largest chunk of fallen stone around the sagging corpse.
The warmth of the Blazing aura of his God is clear around the rough edged lump of stone that keeps him pinned against the sand. With a harsh edged metallic screech of scraping metal, a clog of sand in his artificial fingers causing the limb to screech as he tries to move his fingers, Hideki grips one of his Scalchops in paw and mentally measures up the chunk of stone.
Of course his God could free himself whenever he wanted but it was obvious that he wanted Hideki to feel more confident in his abilities by giving him this opportunity.
I can cut you out but it might take a while. He signs, facing the Charmeleon's snout.

"So that's wwere you got to, pretending to be a Dwebble are wwe?" The crowned Kabutops says jokingly to his trapped mercenary as he plants the standard in the sand to rest his bladed scythes against the stone.
"Your glorious sovereign can get you out of this no problem. The royal blooded Water type says overconfidently as he tries to roll the chunk of severed stone off the Fire Type. It merely rocks under the full pressure of the Shellfish pokemon's almighty shove, something that greatly offends the royal bloodied Regale.
It has been long time since he has had to dirty his blades with manual labor and there's no way he can move the stone.
Pouting irritably he rests his blade against the stone.
"By cutting the stone." He adds as if that was his intention all along.
He strikes the stone firmly with the edge of one of his bladed arms, the sharp hard and metal-like shell sinking deep into the stone and causing a deep fissure to run across its surface.
With satisfaction her raises his scythes for another ringing blow.

Hiroshi winces in pain as the grinding of the stone on his back as the Kabutops pushes at the rock and it drags across his tender scales before the sharp blow to the rock travels down to his body and nearly winds him.
He hears the stone start to crack and knows that a deep blow has been dealt to it but he is simply in the wrong position to knock the stone off his back.
The Charmeleon can only grit his jaws and brace himself against the impact each blow against the stone send through him. A powerful smack to the boulder's top like before only serves to send him deeper into the sand.
His deep orange scaled body glows still with the rich aura of Blaze, it heating the sands below him as the irritating grains work their way under his scales.
His flame tipped tail waves from side to side in his irritation at his helplessness. Even after so many years of throwing himself into battle at every opportunity and the countless hours spent training he was nowhere near being a guardian of others like his father was. Vorukan would have no trouble with this boulder, his father had dived into molten lava to defend his mountain and had come away with scales coated in hard rock ever since.

With a smirk of condescension finding its way across the Dewott's face Hideki hears the Lesser God attempt to remove the stone. His God of Fire was underneath it, the Water Type could feel the warmth of the Blazing aura meet the cooling influence of the similar aura that played across his own thick fur.
Both scalchop blades, edged in the dark red blood of the fallen Illusion, rest 'sheathed' in the darker fur of his hind legs and ready to draw. With a swift Razor Shell, further enhanced by the aura coursing around his body, could simply sever the stone into manageable sized chunks and so free the god but some part of the Lesser God's enthusiasm in contagious. The rough spur of stone by the Dewott's feet, topped with the Illusion's severed head, was a good enough sign that the Lesser God's blade-arms could cut through stone.
If he wished to free Hiroshi without the aid of a Water Type's swift slashes then there was no reason to interfere.
The Dewott rests his metal paw against the stone.
His white whiskers twitch, picking up the small changes in air flow with each sensitive hair and he combs them with his metal paw in an impression of eagerness.

Again Regale strikes the stone with his scythe blade, it gleaming in the faintest traces of light from the set sun that still dance around the horizon as the stone splits further along the same lines but still stubbornly refuses to cleave into more manageable pieces as he wants it to.
In fact, though his blades can cut it they do so only a few inches per blow. At this rate it will be long since dark before he can saw his way entirely through the stone.
Of course if merely breaking the rock was his object the might of white science could destroy it easily...along with the scaled mercenary held trapped underneath it and most of the sand dune it rested upon.
The Kabutops bought the blade down in another powerful slice, the scythe sinking deeply into the stone but it has barely been severed a tenth of the way through.
The Shellfish pokemon looks aside in frustration at this unseemly task and notices he still has one curiously luminescent furred mercenary at his command.
There was no need for a king to blunt his scythes on this task.
Standing proudly upright, the crown of golden colored rock resting awkwardly on his wedge-shaped head, the Kabutops turns towards the Dewott and points one gleaming scythe, edged with particles of dust from the ground stone, straight at the offending boulder with the slit carved in its side.
"Remove the rock." The Kabutops orders brusquely.

Again Hiroshi determinedly strains himself against the boulder, hoping that a few swift slices from Hideki’s scalchops will split the stone into chunks he is capable of moving. Night is coming on swiftly, barely a glimmer of golden light remains along the horizon for them to navigate by. His dark orange scales still glow with the light of Blaze, the flare of heat that surrounds him still making the lower part of the boulder warm to the touch. This is hardly the first time he has found himself in such a predicament.
When he was still a little Charmander, training with his father in learning the powerful move of Rock Slide he had often misjudged his strength and ended up trapped under the stones he was supposed to be hurling…but always there had been his father there with a toothy smile of amusement and a strong arm to pluck the stone off him and blow a smoke ring in his face to check he was o.k. It had been a long time since he had last been trapped like this an every fiber of his being wants it to be his father that lifts the rock from him and blow a smoke ring of encouragement in his face…

With a smirk and a nod to the ‘king’ Hideki runs one paw over the split stone, feeling underfoot the warmth that still lingers in the nearby sands from Hiroshi’s irritation. His God of Flames was so thoughtful, manipulating the illusion to allow him some sense of self-importance in this incorporeal world.
Twisting his neck to the side to loosen up some muscles the Dewott thoughtfully puts the Luck Omen down so he can hold a Scalchop in both paws.
As soon as it leaves his grip Hideki feels a sudden rush of strange energy coming over him. The feeling is…oddly familiar.
The Water Type’s body contorts as the blue glow from his Torrent increases into a steady burst of white light. His limbs twist and flex, fur growing longer and darker as his muscles grow exponentially. His jaws open wide, his face being drawn out as new teeth sprout in his gums.
A new row of whiskers bursts from his cheeks as the sensitive hairs multiply into a thick luxuriant moustache. His black tail shortens to become less paddle-like and all over his body comes the strangely cooling feeling of enamel growing to cover his skin in a heavy armor of shell.
The Scalchops in his paws melt away as he is forced from his bipedal stance onto all fours. They are replaced by thicker secretions, sectioned armor along his legs that serves two purposes as both defense and offense.
The blinding light of the change prevents all these physical shifts from being seen.
The energies counteracted by the lump of Everstone now lying on the sands become powerful enough to spark Hideki’s change from Dewott to Samuwott.

Regale blinks his metallic gold eyes in surprise and takes a tentative step backwards as a glowing shifting aura of power drops over one of his mercenaries.
Highlighted against the growing glow is the shape of the white smooth stone that had falllen from the dragon's slit stomach, a deep cut having apparently shorn free half the rock. His Water Type mercenary had been carrying it with him for some strange reason and now he had dropped it to pick up his blades the change of evolution had been sparked.
The gaunt Kabutops remembers the moment the change had first overcome him, twisting his form from that of a tiny armored crab into the large mantis-like predator he now was.
With it came the feeling of becoming even more powerful than ever, a general strengthing that came only from being fully evolved.
Regale smirks.
His servant becoming more capable was a good sign. With more powerful mercenaries he would soon be able to conquer more than this pathetic patch of desert and take back his watery kingdom.
But still, why was his mercenary holding the stone in the first place if he had no objections to evolving as the new Samuwott appears to? Did they simply mistake the evolution prevention stone for another kind of rock?
The Kabutops turns his golden eyes on his trapped mercenary and notices one claw is curled as if he is holding something.
"Wwhy don't you ditch the rock?" He suggests to the Charmeleon.

Hiroshi is transfixed by the spectacle of Hideki's evolution as the glow of the change fades from the Water Type and leaves the intimidating figure of a Samuwott towering over him. Hideki...has evolved and evolved before him.
Struggling again against the rock and mentally cursing the fact that his strange companion managed to reach his final evolution before he did Hiroshi is surprized to hear Regale advocating discarding the lump of stone Hideki has given to him as a Luck Omen. He didn't think the stone had any real significance but he didn't want to hurt the blind Dewott's feelings by dropping it. Carefully he unfolds his clawed fingers and lets the half stone fall onto the sands.
Instantly a sensation like fire flashes across his scales, a sensation that is surprizingly pleasant and energizing. The dry heat that billows from his heated scales makes the sand glow cherry red underneath him as Hiroshi turns the evolution energies mainly into heat.
His new muscles flex as his body starts to grow. His crimson scales become lighter, his arms shrinking as his legs grow the powerful muscles needed for springing off from the ground. As the shifting Fire Type pits his growing strength against the boulder on top of him two bulges grow beneath his elongating neck and split apart into dark membraned wings. The blazing blue flame at the end of his tail flickers and grows as his tail lengthens.
The bright burning aura of Blaze running across his growing body as it presses against the rough chunk of stone causes it to start to glow cheery red as it heats up.
With a roar that grows deeper as his throat develops Hiroshi manages to stand. Under the force of both his Blaze and the evolution energies the stone glows red, then orange then yellow as it melts into a stream of lava that coats Hiroshi's back and tail as the boulder dissolves.
His one short horn becomes two long ones that spear the sky.
As a Charmeleon Hiroshi had always been tall, a result of his active upbringing but as a Charizard he was enormus. The glowing aura of Blaze fades from his form with the evolution energies.
Looming over his companions the orange-eyed Charizard roars triumphantly at the sky and flexes his new wings.

Hideki stretches out his new body, feeling the new power lurking below his skin and yawning to show his pointed teeth in his dark-blue furred snout. His eyes are still a pale blue of blindness but he feels stronger than ever. The hardness of his shell armor covers his entire body, layered on his hindlegs as a tough yet flexible armor, on his tail as a single bony plate, on his front legs as the tough armor that could also become a blade more powerful than his scalchops ever were and in his spiked helmet that was fused to his head.
He had evolved, the name others gave for the restructuring of the illusion to make him feel more powerful. Even if in reality he knew he was still just a little Oshawott in the dark stone expanse of the world the Great Illusion made him feel more powerful with each change.
The new Samurott stretched out his new form, feeling the increased sentivity of his long whiskers and the crushing strength of each three clawed paw.
His nose twitches as it picks up the unpleasant scent of burning rock.
Carefully the Water Type shuffles backwards as the warm scent Hideki recognized as Hiroshi began to shift and grow. The God of Fire was mimicing this 'evolution' in order to make him feel more comfortable about the change in forms.
As the heat grew so did the scent of melting stone, instead of hurling the boulder from his greatly increased form the stone was melting against the heat of the Fire Type's scales, forming a hot crusty layer of cooling rock against the skin of his God's back.
Hiroshi had become a God of Flames and Stone.
Hideki watches with interest as Hiroshi roars at the darkned skies in an apparent guesture of triumph and stirs up the sands around him with a flapping of his new wings.
The heat of Blaze fading away as the changes become complete the Samuwott slowly edges closer to the now freed Hiroshi. His mechanical arm, suitable for him while he was a Dewott, now seems comically small against the stump of his severed arm. It is layered with the hardened enamel secretion of his Seamitar Blade that loosely bangs against the metal with every step.
He scoops up the tiny lump of white everstone and carefully sniff it.
It is lucky...We should keep it. He signs to the increased ball of warmth that is Hiroshi.

"I've alwways wwanted a dragon!"is the gaunt Kabutops's cheerful response to the changes that have turned his two little mercenaries into far more intimidating figures. It was true, back in his home he had always admired the grace and strength of the local Kingdra and even ridden one in his conquests but, even though he knew it was not the position for a Prince of the Sea, after the stories of his love he had often dreamt of flying.
The terrifying spectacle the pair make, the large Charizard with mottled scales of brown rock starting to harden across its fireproof back and the sightless Samuwott with a metal arm, only makes him more optimistic about his chances of conquest.
With a new kingdom the shame of his exile could, at last, be forgotten...
The boulder is nothing more than a cooling deep orange slag running down the Charizard's impressive back, the lands beneath its massive feet charred black footprints.
Awkwardly clutching the standard beneath his bladed forearms the crowned Kabutops offers the impaled head to the now looming figure of his mercenary.
"Do you think you could fly this to the tide-I mean edge of my borders? It'll wwarn our anenomies from tresbass."

The sensation of hardening rock along his back is strange but not particularly unpleasant. Evolving has made his armor of scales even thicker and fireproof enough to withstand the trickle of molten rock running down his back, the sensation is a bit like warm wax. The Charizard twists his long neck irritably and tries to scratch at the layer of glowing rock that is layered across his back in uneven lumps of hardening porous stone but his clawed arms are too short to get it all off and there's still a rough layer of the warm rock on his back.
Hiroshi blows a ring of smoke cheerfully and stretches out his new wings as far as they can go.
The dark green membrane catches even the slight breeze and billows outwards. Though the wings seem too small to carry his full weight they beat powerfully and he feels full of energy now.
With a grin to his equally evolved companion Hiroshi scoops up the lump of everstone from where he dropped it.
The orange-scaled dragon opens his jaws wide, showing his new razor-sharp fangs and smiles widely.
He has done it. He feels so much more powerful now he was a Charizard like his father.
"That I can do my liege." He grins widely and takes the bloodied trophy in both arms.
His wings whip up a cloud of dust around him as the newly evolved fire-type leaps into the air, lancing the darkened skies with a bolt of flame in sheer animal joy.
He is airborne!
Extending his horned head before him Hiroshi sets his bright orange eyes on the deserts edge far ahead and flaps towards it.
In comparison with his earlier land bound trek he is crossing distances like an arrow.

Hideki turns towards the crowned Kabutops with his sightless light blue eyes, carefully surveying the other Water Type. A cold breeze ruffles his dark blue fur and he is tired after the long battle.
Unlike his God of Flames he feels no jubilation over his evolution. He had never met his Samuwott mother so he has never had any memories related to seeing his evolved form at all, he sees it as another simple amusement.
The Samuwott yawns widely, covering his mouth with one paw and awkwardly rears up onto his hindlegs to sign.
We should go back to the metal place now. It'll get very cold soon and Hiroshi can met us there.
Flicking his tail the Samuwott lowers his shell armored head and starts a faintly lopsided walk towards the former human vehicle that was now their shelter.
He keeps his head lowered, trying to detect the scent of their previous passage among the shifting sands. His metallic arm creaks as, with not even a backwards glance at the Kabutops, Hideki walks on.

Regale smiles to himself as he sees the massive dragon his mercenary had become take wing for the first time. For a land dweller the Fire Type was pretty cool...at least he was obedient. He was even going to put the standard at the edge of the desert as a warning against the intrusion of others into his territory.
His victory assured, the gaunt Rock/Water Type now starts to feel the chill of the night settle in. Without the sun to warm the golden sands the temperature is starting to plummet as the long desert night begins.
While he can't understand the strange motions of the Samurott any more than he could understand those of the Dewott his mercenary used to be but his meaning is clear from his actions.
The cold irritates him, it is best to return to the shelter he has found so he can find some shelter in the metallic building before the cold really starts to set in.
"Do you think he'll knoww wwhere to meet us?" He asks his water type mercenary and shivers as a chill wind passes over his caramel shell.
The sky no longer bears any mark of light from the sunset and is a gorgeously royal shade of indigo. Out here the stars seem far more numerous and they shine far brighter than he has ever seen them do, even with the nights he has spent above water with his love...

Firmly Hiroshi drives the gory trophy of the impaled undead Flygon's head into the sand.
The spine of rock rises proudly above the desert dunes where anyone entering the plains of the area would be bound to see it. The Kabutops had cut the splinter of stone well, it would be a long while before the shifting sands manage to bury it entirely. The brown stone spear and its bloodied head would serve well as a warning that this particular patch of desert was defended.
The Charizard stretches wide his new wings and roars at the darkness beyond. The fight has still left him weakened but also filled with pride.
Now he had evolved he would be better at protecting his friends, though he is still unsure as to whether the arrogant Kabutops could be counted as such.
Today he has won a great victory.
His flame tipped tail glowing like a grounded star in the night and throwing orange light on the crust of dried rock across his back Hiroshi blows a ring of smoke in happiness and, his muscled hind legs tensing, springs up in the air.
His green membrane wings beat as, with the wind behind him, he glides swiftly over the desert dunes. His long neck letting him scan the sky below him efficiently he can spot the withering corpse of the Flygon on the sands beneath him, a few dervishes of sand already starting to cover it over. If he cranes his neck closer and ducks down in his flight he can also see the fallen chunks of stone strewn around it and the fading foot prints of his companions as the two make their way back to the hazy shadow of the human vehicle.
Warmed by his internal fires and inwardly hoping Hideki doesn't randomly decide to kill Regale as the blind Water Type was prone to do when Hiroshi wasn't there, the Fire Type wings towards the Outskirt Stand.

Hideki, his thick blue fur insulating against the cold wind, pays no heed to the monotony of the walk or the Lesser God's pitiful attempts to engage him in conversation. His soul will not be won from his lips so easily.
Instead he trudges onwards, hearing the steady crunch of sand under the Lesser God's clawed feet and navigating by them as the two walk in an awkward silence back towards their shelter.
His mechanical arm has not adapted to the change as have his organic limbs and it irritates him. With the metal found inside the rusting hulk of the metal building he will cut free some metal to enhance it to match the growth of the rest of his body.
Though his face still appears grim inwardly he shares in Hiroshi's joy, not to protect others but for the simple pleasure of power itself.
The samurott's white whiskers twitch as he sniffs the air and picks up on the lingering cold night air the scent of metal and the faintest hint of food that made up the smell of their 'castle'.
Lowering his shell armored head so the pointed horn faces towards any possible danger Hideki twitches his whiskers and steps forwards out of the desert.
A few steps in and sand no longer crunches under his feet. With care and precision he pulls free one of his new thicker shell blades as the instinctual knowledge of how to use a Seamitar fills his head.
With a sound like nails on a chalkboard Hideki cuts free two loose sheets of metal from the walls and tries to bend them around his metal arm. The thin metal folds to shape but won't stay in place.